Do You Have A Mafia Mentality Co-Worker?

The mafia mentality. You probably never thought to say someone has it, but now that you hear it, you could probably instantly name a few people who prescribe to it. You likely have coworkers with whom you feel uncomfortable sharing personal information, worrying they may use it against you. You likely have coworkers who seem like they always have something up their sleeve, and what you see is not what you get. You know how, with some people, you can feel they are being totally transparent and honest? Yeah, well, you know you have coworkers who aren’t like that and ultimately, you just don’t feel you can trust them. Interactions with them leave you feeling icky. These are probably your coworkers with mafia mentality. Here are the signs.

She does favors you don’t ask

She’ll do you a favor for which you didn’t ask. She really seems intent on having you thank her, and having you acknowledge what she’s done for you. Sometimes, you’ll even insist she not do the favor, but she charges on and does it anyways.

The favors are uncomfortably big

Often, this coworker does favors for you that are a bit too much. They leave you feeling uncomfortable. You feel as if you’re now in tremendous debt to this person. Perhaps you arrived late to work due to a personal issue, and this coworker made up a lie for you to the boss.

She flexes on people

Every so often, this coworker will just flex on someone, to show her power. She’ll ask someone to do a rather demeaning task, all because she can, as a way of establishing her place in the power dynamic.

She’ll send a message

Sometimes this coworker will also send a message to someone who is after something she wants. She may “accidentally” spill on that person’s laptop or “accidentally” send an embarrassing email about that person to the whole company, promising it wasn’t intentional. It’s her way of saying, “This is what can happen if you don’t back off.”

She makes power moves on new employees

This coworker will make power moves over new employees. She works hard to establish right away that new employees should respect her, esteem her, and kiss up to her if they want things to go well there.

They offer advocacy for your alliance

She’s offered to promote you, spread good words about you, and give you hookups whenever she can if you promise to do the same for her. That’s not really an adult or ethical way to do things. We should decide to help someone on a case-by-case basis, and only promote them if they’re the right person for the job.

They charm the whole office

They’ve burned a lot of bridges

This individual has a lot of relationships about which she will not speak. They ended by her doing things she’s not proud of and would show her true colors. Her professional past is secret and sketchy.